1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print job management device, a print job management method, and a computer-readable storage medium, and more particularly, to techniques used for performing post-processing after printing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as the processing speed of electrophotographic printing devices and inkjet printing devices has increased and the image quality thereof has improved, a printed matter generating method called “print on demand” has become prominent in opposition to the conventional offset printing industry. Print on demand (hereinafter abbreviated as “POD”) is intended to handle jobs with relatively smaller lot sizes than those handled with a conventional offset printing device in a short delivery time, without using a huge device or system.
The POD market is a market that realizes digital printing using electronic data by making maximum use of a digital image forming device, such as a digital copying device or a digital multifunctional device, and that has final products obtained by digital printing as commercial products. In the POD market as above, compared with the conventional printing industry, digitization has blended well with the system, and computer-based management and control have become widely spread.
The following system is conceived as a POD system for blending digitization and existing printing devices.
That is, a POD system including an inline finisher and a nearline finisher has been conceived. The inline finisher is a finishing device that is included in (physically connected to (e.g., contained in)) a digital multifunctional device and that automatically performs post-processing of an output matter from the digital multifunctional device, without involving the hands of a user. In contrast, the nearline finisher is a finishing device that is not included in (not physically connected to) a digital multifunctional device but that can communicate with the digital multifunctional device. The nearline finisher performs post-processing of an output matter from the digital multifunctional device when the output matter is manually set by the user.
In the POD system as above, when post-processing, such as case binding, an instruction therefor is given using a print job, cannot be performed with the inline finisher because of its lack of function or capability, the user generally places a sheet document on the nearline finisher.
One conventional technique of a system using a nearline finisher is a technique that physically and preliminarily prints, on an output matter from a digital multifunctional device, a job ticket that is described so as to enable a person working with the system to understand an operation instruction for the nearline finisher.
A job identifier (ID) that uniquely identifies a job is rendered as a barcode on a physical sheet, and the physical sheet on which the barcode is rendered is output. The barcode rendered on the physical sheet is read with a barcode reader included in the nearline finisher, and the job ID based on the barcode is compared with a job ID sent in advance to the nearline finisher.
Furthermore, a technique for using a combination of a digital multifunctional device with an inline finisher, and a nearline finisher is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-309319. With this technique, the work load of inline finishing in the digital multifunctional device is dispersed among or performed in place thereof using one or multiple nearline finishers connected to a network, whereby the overall operation efficiency is improved.
However, the foregoing conventional techniques have the following problems when it is intended to generate, as a final product, a printed matter by performing post-processing such as case binding.
That is, the inline finisher is configured to produce, as an output matter, an exclusive product that has been case bound. Therefore, a job generated with the intention to be subjected to post-processing with a post-processor (inline finisher) included in the digital multifunctional device includes data on the cover and the contents. Therefore, with the conventional techniques, this job cannot be changed to a job that generates two products, the cover and the contents, and performs post-processing of the two products using the nearline finisher. That is, a job generated with the intention to be subjected to processing with the inline finisher cannot be changed to a job intended to be subjected to processing using the nearline finisher.
For example, when a case binding process is to be performed, the final product will be a case-bound product. Thus, it is instructed that a product generated from a job generated with the intention to be subjected to processing with the inline finisher included in the digital multifunctional device is an exclusive final product, and there is only one sheet ejecting destination. In contrast, in order to generate a case-bound product using the nearline finisher, a person working with the system must separately set the cover and the contents on the nearline finisher, and the nearline finisher performs a case binding process. Therefore, an output matter from the digital multifunctional device must correctly and separately include the cover and contents. However, with the conventional techniques, as described above, a job generated with the intention to be subjected to processing with the inline finisher cannot be changed to a job intended to be subjected to processing using the nearline finisher. Therefore, when a job that uses the inline finisher is generated, it is difficult to execute this job using the nearline finisher.
In contrast, a “product from the digital multifunctional device” in a job intended to generate the final product using the nearline finisher includes two products of the cover and the contents. Therefore, the conventional techniques are incapable of converting this job to a job for the inline finisher that requires an exclusive final product. Therefore, when a job that uses the nearline finisher is generated, it is difficult to execute this job using the inline finisher.